U.S. Casinos and UK bingo halls have something in common

There appears to be similarity developing between bingo halls in the UK and casinos in the U.S., the recent trend of high street bingo hall closures is now being echoed in the U.S with the closure of some major casinos.

The reasons for high street bingo hall closures in the UK has not been attributed to only one cause, it stems from a mixture of a change in the social trends, the UK smoking ban, higher taxation and of course not forgetting the current economic crisis. At the same time as the bingo halls are experiencing a huge drop in fortunes online bingo site are seeing their membership grow and certainly most of the larger online bingo sites are seeing their current fortunes improving despite the global economic problems.

A similar reversal of fortunes is being reported in the U.S. with a vast amount of brick and mortar casinos suffering a severe drop in revenues resulting in some major casinos needing to close, and on the flipside online casinos experiencing increases in not only player numbers but in revenues. In Atlantic City there has been over a 19 per cent drop in turnover in February 2008 when figures are compared to those shown in 2007. A drop in turnover has been reported by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission as the worst decline in fortunes for over 30 years. Even Las Vegas is having its problems with MGM Mirage cancelling any proposed development plans until the financial crisis is over. Staff in U.S. Casinos have even been advised to not discuss the ‘global economy’ with casino players for fear of frightening them off. The Trump empire is also suffering with three of the AC Casinos owned by the Trump conglomerate filing for bankruptcy.

Changing trends could be one factor for the decline for both types of gambling institutions, and certainly the global economic crisis will have had a major effect, but without doubt gambling has always survived no matter what the financial world has thrown at it. It is hoped that land based casinos in America and high street bingo halls in the UK do weather the storm and return once more to their former glory.